Darcey Bussell’s dance lessons plan for schools

Children should learn to dance to help them express their feelings, according
to Darcey Bussell

The overuse of computers and social media has meant children are forgetting how to communicate with their bodies and express themselves, Darcey Bussell has warned, as she advocates learning dance to help them show feelings.

The ballerina said she believed the amount of time the younger generation spent online had got in the way of face-to-face contact.

Bussell, a judge on Strictly Come Dancing, said she is planning a programme of dance lessons to start in schools in May. She said: “From my own experience, I think any sort of dance – ballet in particular because of my own memories – creates an awareness of your own space, expressing yourself, being comfortable.

“I have two young daughters and they’re growing up with such a facility for communicating online.

“It’s amazing the way they can communicate in so many different ways, but then they forget to communicate with their bodies.”

When asked about her experience of ballet, and how it benefited her communication, she said: “I think our bodies are there to be used. We’re built to be athletes, it’s all in our body. We wouldn’t have this body otherwise – we’d just be a blob on a chair. For me, as a young person, I didn’t have the ability to say what I felt through words, so I let out a lot with movement.

“You have a lot of energy; it’s focusing that energy.”

Her programme will teach children to dance in around 15 styles, with specially-composed extracts of world music to encourage them to learn to love movement.

It is intended for secondary school students of both genders, to help motivate those who do not enjoy competitive sports.

She added she also hoped to convince adults to overcome fears they “can’t do it” to shed their inhibitions and take up all kinds of dance.